Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

One of the reasons we seem to have lost this project - I hope we have not lost it but all the signs suggest we have - is that a 100% renewable power supply was required. The Minister of State cannot say that we are good in terms of meeting a zero-carbon energy demand. We are just not doing it. Denmark is doing it and that is why it is winning investment for data centres. Perhaps on the first plant it could be said that the countries were in a race and Ireland lost out because of planning. However, Denmark also got the second plant, worth €950 million, ahead of Ireland.

I believe that one of the reasons for that is that Denmark can guarantee a 100% renewable power supply because it is committed to that idea. The Government here is not. Denmark is using animal waste in really sophisticated ways. For example, it uses methane to power the plant. Heat from the plant is used for district heating. There is clever balancing of energy systems. None of that is happening in this country. It is not because Ireland cannot do it or because the technology is not transferable, but because there is zero political leadership here in terms of renewable energy. The digital revolution and clean energy revolution go together. Fine Gael did not believe that. The public administration system here does not believe it. Irish representatives are in Brussels this week fighting against ambitious renewables targets. That is the reality of what Ireland is doing. We cannot then expect Apple, which is not stupid and which can read the same files that I can read, not to believe that Ireland is a regressive country in its arguments with the European Union. That has a consequence in terms of investment decisions like this, involving 100% renewable energy systems. It is one of the reasons that investment is not happening here. Apple can read what the Citizen's Assembly read this week, that Ireland does not do 100% renewable power.

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